Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-09-23
1fl1seeital.egus.
Be Content.
By WALDO +. Brown.

Eastview Farm, as well as a hundred
thousand others, has suffered from the
widespre adj drouth to such an extent that
the income is reduced to a narrow margin.
At such a time it is hard to maintain a
cheerful mind and to believe that all is
"for the best" In our dependency we
are apt 10 exaggerate the trials which be-
set our own position and imagine that
others are exempt, forgetting that the life
of the farmer who is out Of debt and not
ambitious to be rich is probably freer from
anxiety than that of any other class of men
and more nearly tulfills what Agur prayed
for when he said, "Give me neither pow
ertv nor riches. Feed me with food con
venent tor me-"
A large part of our worry in this lite
comes from making acquisition of wealth
the great desideratum. the only test of
success and the best thing we can leave
our children. The fact is that majority
of those who attain wealth pay too high
price for 1t, and the chances of success
in lie for a young man usually diminish
as the amount of inherited property in
creases have just been talking with a
large Kansas farmer who left this county
twenty years ago, and has become what
seems to those of us who are content to
farm hundred acres or less, "a bonanza
farmer " He grows from four to five
hundred acres of corn each year and every
thing is staked on the success OF this one
crop, for small grain is so uncertain that
! It is practically abandoned in his part of
| Kansas. He runs nine two-horse cultiva-
! tors in his corn from the time it comes up
until it so large that they cannot get
| through it without breaking it down. All
| OF it is cut and shocked, and every dav
through the Winter, let the weather be
what it may. the hands must draw out
enough tor several hundred cattle. The
fodder and corn is fed without husking on
the ground and the cattle have no shelter
except what a grove of trees furnishes.
| Fifty bushels per steer for wintering
when the cattle are on what is called
halt feed. and one hog will thrive
following each steer. There are many
large neighborhoods in Kansas, lli-
nois and other Western states where these
ranches are common, where there can be
no near neiChborS, and the life is one of
drive and hurry from years end to
years end. Added to this are the care and
anxiety incident 10 business where all is
ventured on single crop. which an in
vasion OF ehineh bug, a hallstorm or one
iav of hot winds may destroy. My friend
told of a neighoor who mad 600 acres OF
corn which promised IS bushels to the
acre, or 45, 600 bushels, and fortY-eight
hours of hot wind cut it down to i've
bushels per acre.
There is a limit beyond which farming
can not be extended under the direction Of
one man without waste, loss and worry.
The chances are that the man who al
tempts to get rich by farming large
area will fail, but even if he succeeds. in
most cases he pays for it by sacrificing
his own comfort and that OF his family.
The men who have executive ability to
manage large farm and direct the labors
of a large gang of men so that they shall
work probably are about as scarce as
successful generals, and yet most farmers
are anxious to extend their operations and
complain because their business is
| small" With about ninety-nin out of
every hundred of US it is of far greater
Importance that we keep our expenses